


The Heat of Summer

by thecurlymop



Category: The Crimson Field
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-04-06 20:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4234959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecurlymop/pseuds/thecurlymop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's hot, they go to the beach...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Heat of Summer

The lovely myfoodisnotshared sent me virtual thoughts of topless Tom, for which, thanks…

 

It is the summer of 1916 and they are all suffering from the heat. The colonel had given all officers leave to remove their heavy wool jackets but still everyone was sweltering. Most patients had been moved out of the tents as under the heavy canvas, heat collected and there was nothing they could do about it. Kitty almost wished for the freezing temperatures of the previous winter when she had worn fingerless gloves for everything she could but had still ended up with chilblains on every finger and knuckles so swollen from doing the laundry that she had been unable to unbutton her dress each evening until someone, usually Thomas, had massaged her hands painfully into life again.  
She, at least, could leave off most of the under petticoats of her uniform without anyone noticing but for the officers, it was harder.  
She and Tom had arranged to spend the afternoon in a glade in the woods, hoping to catch some relief from the scorching sun under the shade of the trees and also some privacy from camp life. They didn’t get much time alone really and she thought they both wanted more. She was slightly early as she arrived outside Miles and Tom’s tent but she still called out to see if he was ready. She was intrigued by the muffled cursing and scuffling she heard from inside and called out again.  
‘Tom, it’s only me, shall we go?’  
‘Just…’ there were more curses which sounded much better in his accent than hers… ‘just give me a moment, I’m not quite… ready.’  
His head appeared in the opening of the tent and she noticed that he was definitely lacking a shirt, his bare shoulder was clearly visible and she swallowed. She was no stranger to the male body, her work would have seen to that had she not been married, but there was something very different about seeing the body of the man you cared about instead of the injured lads she nursed every day.  
‘Oh, sorry,’ he apologised, noticing that she could see his state of undress and sidling awkwardly behind the tent flap so his head was practically sideways and she had to laugh.  
‘'It was too warm in here, I'll just be a minute… you could… come in?’ he asked tentatively, ‘I can put on a shirt?’  
It wasn’t as if she was shy, it was just new to her, seeing him this way. She shrugged and followed him into the tent, quickly enough to note his unexpectedly muscular chest before he turned away and she could appreciate his broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist that was only hinted at in his uniform. He was pale and slightly freckled across his shoulders but not unpleasantly so. She almost laughed as she noticed the mark where his sunburnt neck met his shoulders in a very defined line. The back she had been appreciating disappeared as he shrugged on his shirt and buttoned it quickly, rolling up the sleeves as he turned to face her. She tried not to look too hard at his forearms but it was difficult, especially now she knew what they led to.  
‘Shall we go?’ He raised an eyebrow at her and she realised he’d caught her staring. Well he stared at her too, she could feel his gaze sometimes, raking her back while she worked.  
‘Yes, let’s go.’

Later when she kissed him, she couldn’t help but think of what she had seen earlier as she mapped out his torso with her hands over his shirt. It made it that much better, to know exactly what her hands were touching. 

 

After that first time, she becomes a little more blasé about it. Once he realises she doesn’t really mind (she thinks he’s noticed that actually she really doesn’t mind), he quite often stays in his tent without his shirt and doesn’t fuss when she comes to see him. Miles raises an eyebrow when he finds them playing cards one sweltering afternoon both in a much less dressed state than might be expected. She now takes her boots and stockings off as soon as she is off duty and on that day she has pulled her skirt up to her knees and has also unbuttoned her dress at the top. Tom raised his eyebrows but politely hasn’t looked too much at her. She thinks he might actually be embarrassed. So Miles enters and though she pulls her skirt down quite quickly, he definitely sees and unlike Tom, he doesn’t look away. That is, until Tom snaps ‘Miles!’ and then he apologises.  
‘I was going to go down to the beach, it should be cooler there and we can paddle. Most people are still on duty so I was going to swim. I was going to ask if you’d like to join me Tom, but I see you are otherwise engaged.’  
Kitty looks at him consideringly. She knows that Miles and Tom usually spend their free time together and she’s been taking up more and more of Tom’s time as it is.  
‘Why don’t you go?’ she says, getting looks of surprise from both men. ‘Well why not? You’ll enjoy it, it’ll be much nicer than staying in here. I’d come too if I could.’  
Tom grins, clearly remembering when he saw her coming out of the sea that day.  
‘Well, why not come? It’s not as if there will be anyone but us and I promise faithfully not to look… too much,’ says Miles with a cheeky grin that earns him a gentle punch from Tom. ‘Of course, I can’t vouch for my friend here but I know he’s done more than look…’  
‘Miles! Shut it!’ barks Tom, a red flush spreading interestingly from his chest up his neck. She’d been so distracted by Miles that she’d almost forgotten his shirtlessness and it was clear he had too as he flushed pinker under the combined weight of their gazes.  
‘Why not… I’ll go and fetch a towel and join you down there,’ she decides, taking in both their startled expressions before leaving the tent quickly before either of them can attempt to talk her out of it. Yes, it’s scandalous but she’s already been alone in a tent with a half undressed captain for several hours that day and to be perfectly honest, she’s a bit hot and flustered. She could do with a swim in the sea.

She walks down the sandy path slowly, enjoying the breeze that is moving the top of the grass and cooling her cheeks. She can hear Miles and Tom yelling at each other and as she rounds the corner on to the beach she sees them, already in the shallows and passing a small rubber ball between them. She stops, finds a convenient rock to put her things on and begins to remove her dress. The boys – for that’s what they have diminished to – are in their underthings so she strips to her shift and then makes her way to the water, feeling suddenly shy as Miles notices her and lets out a whistle.  
‘Why Miss Trevelyan, you deign to join us, mere mortals?’  
‘I thought I’d try it for a day, see what it was like down here,’ she retorts, glancing at Tom. He is gazing at her as if she were the goddess Miles suggested and she had to admit, she liked it.  
‘You have seen me like this before,’ she reminds him with a laugh. He flushes and looks away and she feels a rise of affection for him.  
‘You’ve seen this marvel before Thomas? And how did I not know about this? He tells me everything Kitty, so why don’t I know about this?’  
Miles looks almost hurt at not being included.  
‘You don’t know everything Miles,’ sighs Tom. ‘I’m going to swim, are you coming Kitty?’  
Together they stride out over the breaking waves and when she starts to fall behind, he stops and holds out a hand to her. Miles watches as they go, enjoying the ripples over his feet but feeling somewhat left out. Then Tom says something to Kitty and she turns, calling out.  
‘Come on Miles, get a move on!’  
He brightens and starts out after them. Perhaps he isn’t going to be left out after all.

They spend a happy hour swimming and splashing and passing the ball, now slightly deflated, between them. Several games of piggy in the middle occur with Miles, superior in height to both Tom and Kitty, the winner of all.  
Eventually they wade out of the water and make it up to a dryer part of the beach, falling on the sand in an untidy configuration with Kitty between Tom and Miles, all exhausted.  
‘We should probably go back soon,’ Tom says regretfully.  
‘Yes,’ sighs Kitty,  
‘No,’ shouts Miles determinedly. ‘I want to stay here with you and watch the sun set.’ He looks around at them and sighs. ‘I’ve had fun this afternoon. It would be nice to stay here don’t you think?’  
Kitty and Tom nod but the spell is broken when Kitty stands to retrieve her clothes.  
‘You better not be looking,’ she says teasingly, ‘you two should go and get dressed too. Then we can go back to camp and try and pretend we went on a walk.’  
Miles and Tom grumble but do as she says, exchanging uncomfortable glances when they catch each other eying Kitty from where she is just about visible behind her rock. Miles thinks that maybe he should feel guilty about looking at her when she is so clearly in love with Tom and he with her, but Tom doesn’t actually seem so worried and they have spent an afternoon playing at the beach together so it’s not as if he hasn’t seen most of what he can still see.  
When they are mostly presentable and Kitty has braided her hair into some semblance of order again (much to the fascination of both men), they head back to the path and the camp. When it is time to split off, Kitty surprises everyone, including herself by kissing Miles on the cheek before exchanging a slightly longer embrace with Tom. Miles is still able to smell her sharp seawater salty scent as they watch her walk off, calling over her shoulder that she’ll see them at supper.  
They go back to their tent in silence, not uncomfortable, just unsure of what had just happened until, as they are peeling off sandy shirts, Miles breaks and asks, ‘So, what did she mean about you having seen her like that before?’  
Tom’s sandy soggy shirt in his face is all the answer he gets but it’s enough to know that whatever happened on the beach and with Kitty hasn’t affected their friendship.

The August heat has been with them for so long, wilting the starched headdresses of the nurses until only Matron’s remains stiff and unblemished. Miles and Kitty joke that she gets it re-starched every hour and Tom thinks privately that it’s actually quite likely.  
But the heat has to break eventually, finally, amazingly, in early September, with a huge thunderstorm. The weather has been curiously still all day, with the oppressive heat weighing down on them all and no-one is surprised to hear arguments breaking out among the men. Miles gets back from breaking up a fight, thankfully before it became more than slinging insults, to find Kitty in their tent, curled up in the middle of Tom’s bed, shivering.  
‘Kitty? Kit? Are you alright?’  
As soon as he gets close enough, she reaches out a hand and grasps his wrist, pulling him closer until he has no option but to sit on the bed next to her. He drapes his arm awkwardly across her in an imitation of a hug and hopes he is helping.  
He can hear distant rumbles of thunder, not unlike the cannon fire they can often hear, and now the wind is picking up as well, bringing gusts of hot air through the tent.  
‘Is it the storm Kitty?’  
She nods, still shivering and he is glad at least, for a reason for this retreat into the Kitty he has only seen once before. At home they have a dog who hates thunder and anything that imitates that sound. She hates Miles’ motorbike almost as much as his mother does but for completely different reasons. The dog, Daisy, will cower next to you, drooling horribly and shaking until she deems that the danger has passed. Like Kitty seems to be, she is comforted by the presence of other people, so much so that she will follow you around even more than normal.  
A few minutes later, Tom comes in with a grumpy face that turns to confusion when he sees the tableau laid out on his bed.  
‘She was here when I got here, I think it’s the storm,’ Miles offers.  
Tom nods grimly and sits at the other end of the bed reaching a hand out to rest on her back. She reaches out the hand that isn’t holding Miles’ and holds Tom’s as well. After a few minutes of them exchanging glances across her curved sides, they come to the agreement that everyone needs to move, it’s agonisingly uncomfortable for both of them being twisted over her like that.  
With thunder rumbling and lightning flashes illuminating the scene, somehow they manage to manoeuvre her into an upright position and as she so clearly wants as much human contact as possible, Tom sits on the bed and they put her on his lap where she immediately finds a place on his shoulder for her head. Miles stands there with her hand still in his and looks at them. He’s not needed anymore, she has Tom now but he feels a tug of regret as he gives her hand a final squeeze and begins to walk away. It’s now started raining and the thunder and lightning are coming only seconds apart, meaning the storm is right overhead. He only just hears Kitty’s protests and calls of ‘Miles, come back,’ and half wonders if he’s imagined them. But Tom’s face, turned to him, waiting to see if he will come back, answers that question. Hesitantly, without saying a word, he goes back to the bed and settles next to Tom, waiting for either of them to flinch away but he ends up with Kitty’s legs over his lap, her hand in his and pressed firmly against Tom from shoulder to knee. The points of contact burn with heat and comfort for all of them.

The end of September comes and with it, a chance for time off for many of the staff. Rosalie and Flora choose to go home but Kitty, of course, cannot and so without much discussion she arranges to go to the local town for a few days with Miles and Tom. They arrange for her to have the room next to theirs and all three of them are looking forward to some time out of the hospital.  
The first day is spent sleeping and eating and generally enjoying the comforts they have to live without at camp. They only have two days before they have to go back so the second day is spent doing all the things they need to do. Kitty goes shopping, as does Thomas and Miles spends two hours waiting for his boots to be re-soled. That evening, they find a café close to the hotel and gradually get very drunk, the men enjoying watching Kitty, who obviously has a much lower tolerance for alcohol than they do, lose the last of her reserve. She is sat between them in a tiny corner booth of the café and with the background hum and the sound of an accordion being played by the bar, it feels like a little slice of normality, almost as if there isn’t a war on after all. It may be that this feeling is what prompted Kitty to happily lean over and kiss Tom firmly, leaving him looking stunned before she leans over and does the same to Miles without hesitation. Both men are frozen, Miles absently wondering if he can taste Tom on his lips along with Kitty. Her laughter shakes them out of their surprise, she is cackling drunkenly and Miles thinks that she is going to feel awful in the morning.  
‘You should kiss each other,’ she suggests. ‘After all, I’ve just kissed both of you so it’s not as if you haven’t already done so..’ she looks as if the idea is completely normal and she’s already got a hand on both their arms and is trying to push them together across the table. Miles looks around for some sort of escape and his eyes register another officer he vaguely knows from somewhere who has a young boy tucked under his arm pressing kisses to his cheek. No-one is batting an eyelid, it really is so dark in here that no-one would notice.  
He looks back at Tom and realises how close Kitty has managed to push them. Brown eyes meet blue ones and then, trying not to think of the consequences, Miles surges forward and presses his lips to Tom’s. The kiss only lasts for a few seconds before Tom is pulling away and Kitty kisses him again but this time she catches Miles’ eye where he is still leant forward to kiss Tom and he remembers the sensation of those slightly rough lips on his as he watches them together.

They crawl back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning, having been chucked out of the café. Kitty is draped between them, giggling furiously as her knees keep giving out and Miles is trying not to notice where he and Tom are touching as they clasp arms around her waist and practically carry her up the stairs. They try to deposit her in her own room but she won’t let go of them and in the end it makes more sense to just collapse beside her as she wants. Miles wants to say something to Tom about what happened but he falls asleep quickly, lulled by the rhythmic breathing of the others, a memory of Tom’s bright blue eyes haunting him through his dreams.

Miles wakes to the scent of coffee and rolls and discovers that Tom and Kitty, look rather the worse for wear, have ordered breakfast up to the room and are feasting at the table by the window. He blinks blearily and is assaulted by images of the previous night.  
He groans, ‘Did we?’  
‘If you remember it, then we probably did.’ Tom says sympathetically.  
As Miles slowly moves to the table and his share of the food, Kitty opens her mouth and then closes it abruptly, apparently deciding not to say anything.  
‘What Kit?’ asks Tom.  
‘Well, I’m just remembering something and I suppose I should apologise for, I don’t know, forcing you to umm…’  
To Miles’ surprise he feels Tom’s knee press hard against his own. Brown eyes meet blue again and Tom’s eyes seem clear of regret. Miles nods gently.  
‘Kit, you don’t need to apologise,’ he says gently. ‘We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t want to.’  
He holds his breath, waiting for Tom to reject what he has just said but to his relief it doesn’t come. He has read Tom perfectly, as he always does.  
‘Exactly Kit, it’s fine,’ he says firmly.  
Kitty looks from one to the other and smiles. ‘I’m glad. I wouldn’t want to have caused problems just because I’m a bit much when I’ve had too much wine.’  
‘A bit much?’ Miles teases, ‘try out of control!’  
The rest of breakfast passes quickly now that any misunderstandings have been made right and if, as they are packing up to go back to camp, Tom and Miles stand a little closer together and there is the occasional brush of shoulders, Kitty only watches silently and smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> this fic was saved as /encountering topless thomas/ so yeah. Inspired by thoughts of Thomas' torso and then I found another part called /now they're all stripping/ whoops


End file.
